Do We Search Or Ask For Answers? by Laurie Sullivan

Some might call it search -- and others, asking for answers. Even before Ask.com moved from a Q&A to a search engine business model, and then transitioned back again, many seeking answers continued to rely on the site to ask questions. Searchers apparently know where to go for answers. But in a list of the top five destinations, the order of the names might surprise many. ...Read the whole story

  • Click-Through Metrics Come Under Fire by Gavin O'Malley

    While marketers continue to rely on click-through rates as a primary measure of campaign effectiveness, new research suggests that the metric should be taken with a grain of salt -- or completely taken out of the equation. ...Read the whole story

  • Former Yahoo Execs Launch Daily Deals Social Network by Laurie Sullivan

    Yahoo veterans -- Nick Weir, Usama Fayyad and Hunter Madsen -- have formed a daily deals social site that allows consumers to create their own personal deal network with friends, favorite stores, brands, product categories, and loyalty programs. The site, announced Tuesday, goes live in mid-summer. ...Read the whole story

  • Magnetic, C3 Metrics Help Marketers Refine Ad Targeting, Search by Laurie Sullivan

    Magnetic and C3 Metrics have launched a retargeting and funnel attribution model. The combination of platforms from the two companies -- search targeting and attribution technology -- allows marketers to understand the words consumers search to arrive at an advertiser's site. ...Read the whole story

  • Neuroscientists Analyze Searches On Sexual Desires by Laurie Sullivan

    Search queries offer a new source of data for many things, even what computational neuroscientists Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam call "true" sexual desires. The new book, "A Billion Wicked Thoughts," co-authored by the duo and scheduled for release on May 5, analyzes 1 billion Web searches from around the world. ...Read the whole story

Content Farms Revisited: Panda Needs To Go Further by Janet Driscoll Miller

Back in February, I wrote a post about content farms -- defining them and laying out the problem content farms pose for SEO. In the meantime, Google has released series of algorithm updates (Panda) to combat the problem. But has the Panda update really lived up to the goal of minimizing the effect of content farms in organic search results? ...More

  • Smart Content Marketing Relies On Efficient Production by Derek Gordon

    I hear it over and over again: "Who has time to do all this stuff?!" By stuff, marketing professionals are referring to the production and distribution of the variety of content that flows from strategies that are built to engage audiences, improve search rank, and yield better bottom line business results. ...More